This invention relates to a printable form. More particularly, the present invention relates to a multi-part form having a detachable wristband accompanied by a plurality of detachable labels, cards, tags or the like, which may be printed with information in a single pass through a printer.
The use of identification bracelets in hospital settings to identify individual patients is a common practice. The identification bracelet, which may include the patient's name and room number, is generally secured around the wrist of the patient during his or her stay at the hospital. While this has been useful to identify patients, some hospitals and medical clinics have experienced problems correlating patients with information relating to their lab results, specimens, prescriptions, billing, newborn babies, etc. Clerical errors in the handling of such routine matters can result in the dispensing of the wrong medicine or a newborn baby going home with the wrong mother.
Attempts have been made to improve the correlation of patient information to lab results, specimens, prescriptions, etc. For example, Falla, U.S. Pat. No. 4,122,947, teaches a pre-packaged patient identification kit which includes a wristband, a specimen container, and a label for attachment to a patient's record, all of which have been provided with identical patient information. However, more than one specimen container or label may be required and adding pre-identified specimen containers to the identification kit can increase the cost of such a kit. In another example, Huddleston et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,472, teaches a form having a detachable wristband and labels. While methods such as those described above may provide means of identifying a patient for various purposes, such methods either lack more than two different types of identification elements and/or limit the end users' flexibility in using multi-part printable forms to create various patient indicia of one or more materials.
Accordingly, there is a need for a low-cost identification media that can provide multiple identification elements containing identical and/or overlapping information and which is capable of being produced in any desired quantity and/or as the needs arises. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides other related advantages.